How to Create a Trailer – Part 4

So far, we’ve gathered a handful of separate files consisting of audio, video and/or still images. Then, we edited each of them using the appropriate programs. Finally, we assembled them into our grand production and exported the collection as a single video clip. Congratulations!

Now what?

The final step is to get your magnum opus out to the world. There are several ways of doing this.

eMail

Assuming the file is small enough, you can email it to your friends. Most email programs now allow attachments of ten megabytes or smaller.

NOTE: Be sure you don’t use someone’s work or office email address because many agencies and businesses have internal polices that forbid it. You don’t want to get them in trouble with management nor do you want your email address to be blocked in the future.

Your Own Website

If you have your own website and manage it yourself, you can upload the video to your host server and display it on one of your pages. If you’re not familiar with how to do this, your hosting company will have documents on their support pages as well as a technical support line that will be able to show you how to copy a file from your local machine to you site.

YouTube

YouTube is by far the most popular and easiest way of getting short video clips on the web. Don’t get me wrong, now. There are a lot of similar video-sharing sites on the web, but YouTube is the single largest.

One of the big advantages to posting your work to YouTube is that once it is up, you can get the “embed” code from it and place that in your blog. The same code can be used by your publisher and review sites to showcase your work.

Don’t forget to email you other author friends with the embed code so that they can help you with cross-promotions as well. When the time comes, you can do the same with their trailers.

The first step is to register with YouTube. This is no different than any other social-networking site. Once you have a profile set up that includes your author name, a little about yourself and links to your website and/or blog, you can then click the yellow button in the upper right corner. It will take you to this page:

The instructions on that page are pretty self-explanatory, but there are a few things to consider.

Links

Make sure that in the information you include not only your name but also the link to both your website and the place where your book can be purchased.

Make it easy on the viewer and give them the full link to your exact page on your publisher’s site, rather than just the publisher’s home page.

If you have several works on your website, give the viewer the link directly to them, rather than the homepage. Don’t make them dig for any info concerning your trailer.

That’s it for now. If you have any questions or comments on this tutorial, please don’t hesitate in dropping me a line. As I get some feedback, I’m planning on updating this tutorial and then making it available as a PDF file.